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He glanced away, his face inscrutable in the dim flickering light. “I’m not miserable, Caldren. I’m glad you and I aren’t enemies.”
Warmth spread through my chest. “I’m glad we’ve left the past behind.”
He looked as if he had something else to say, and then it was gone as the ground began to shake beneath our feet.
Earthquake.
Ebba.
I leapt to my feet, letting out a curse. The worst thing was, as a leader I didn’t want to run away from the camp full of my own people.
And yet… Ebba’s magic controlled the natural world around us.
If this was another attack by Ebba, getting away from my people would keep them safest.
“Stay here,” I barked at Jaik, before taking off running. I raced from the clearing and fire light, entering the peculiar hush that was the Fae forest at night. Even the lethal white blooms of the night lilies seemed suspended. Listening. Waiting.
As I ran between the trees, the ground split around me, trees toppling and revealing their roots, wings flapped overhead. I glanced up and caught a glimpse of black scales flying above the treetops.
My brother had always been a bad listener.
The ground heaved beneath my feet. I stumbled forward, trying to catch my balance. But all around me, the earth was cracking open.
The ground beneath my feet disappeared, sliding away rapidly into a chasm, and I fell.
As fear rushed through my stomach, my feet slammed into the side of the growing embankment. I reached out for tree roots that stuck out from the side of the earth, but I couldn't grab them as I fell. They just slid through my fingers and yanked out of the earth, scattering crumbs of dirt over me as I fell again.
There was a whistling sound in the air, and the world above me darkened.
Jaik's wings were folded as he dove toward me, his golden eyes the brightest thing in the dark of the chasm.
I braced myself, knowing how much it would hurt the second before it happened. His talons wrapped my body, pressing deep enough to wound in his urgency and sudden pain lanced through my side. I let out a scream, unable to help it, and his wings beat, slamming into the sides of the chasm as he tried desperately to break our fall. He slowed us down, but the walls still seemed to be hurtling past too quickly. We were plummeting toward the ground no matter how hard he beat his wings.
The last second before we hit, he tossed me away from him, so that his weight slamming into the earth wouldn't crush me. His wings scraped the sides of the chasm as he came to a halt, and I tried to draw a breath again.
Everything hurt. But I was breathing, after an initial shock of pain that made me gasp when I finally breathed in.
And now that I could breathe, I had a lot to say to my brother. “Have you lost your gods damn mind?”
He often looked at me like I was an idiot when he was a dragon, and he did so now. Then he transformed into his human form to look at me like I was an idiot again, but withemphasis.
“We were just talking about how I was glad our relationship was better. So forgive me for not watching you splatter.”
“Yes, very heroic. Except can you fly back out of here?”
Jaik tilted his head back, studying the narrow chasm walls above us. It would be difficult for him to fly up, given he didn't have enough room to spread his wings or take off. Dragons soared easily once they were in flight, but they were so big, it took some effort for them to get into the air.
“We'll find a way out,” he said, which wasn't exactly a direct answer to my question. He wasn't going to admit that he had put himself in mortal danger trying to lookout for me.
“I'm touched, Jaik, but I didn't need you to risk your life to protect mine--”
“Would you do it for me?”
His tone was so abrasive that I was tempted to say no.
But it would have been a lie. “Yes.”
“Then skip being a cynical dickhead and let's figure it out.”
